Michelle Shocked

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Michelle Shocked likes to break down boundaries. But perhaps
dragging hapless volunteers on stage for a round of "Shockeoke"
(that's karaoke using Shocked's songs) wasn't the best way to start
a performance. The full-house was itching to see the woman herself,
not timid audience members butchering her classics.

But as soon as the effervescent Texan singer-songwriter took to
the stage and launched into the mellow 5am in Amsterdam,
the evening started to take shape.

From 1988's Short Sharp Shocked came wonderfully loose,
bluesy versions of Memories of East Texas and If Love
Was a Train. During Anchorage, her biggest hit,
Shocked responded to a heckler by doing an impromptu performance of
the wedding song referred to in the track. She then delivered a
spirited monologue on love, which she said was "more painful than
shoving a bamboo splint up yer toenails".

For a singer such as Shocked, whose career peaked in the late
'80s and early '90s, finding a balance between old and new material
is always going to be a challenge. But Shocked nipped the issue in
the bud early, declaring that she would play enough old tunes to
keep the audience "sated if not satisfied" before dipping into her
new triple album, Threesome. Highlights from this release
were the politically charged How You Play the Game, during
which she declared she wanted a divorce from the US Government, and
the high energy punk of Goodbye.

The endearingly eccentric Shocked has impressive improvisation
skills. She played cheekily with each song's phrasing and lyrics,
at times completely deviating from the script. The free-form,
organic feel was further enhanced by the band, who did well to keep
up with the singers often-rambling style.

Despite niggling technical problems and "a bad case of PMS", by
evening's end Shocked had managed to create intimacy with an
initially reluctant crowd, which sang, clapped and danced
along.